Final Thoughts

Riley Nelson

       We were tasked with creating an intervention or device that helps bring awareness to climate change.  Our goal was to get people personally connected to climate change in hopes that they would make an effort to help combat it in the future.  Global warming is very present in our society today, however the average person does not go out of their way to help prevent something they think does not affect them.  We wanted to make climate change more of a priority in their minds by evoking emotion.  

       We decided to make an installation that highlights the negatives of global warming while also showing the positives that can come from taking action.  The user has to choose between two different routes that they could take when walking down a street.  The idea was that both sides or paths evoke an emotion from the person.  The “recycling” side has lots of light colors and positive concepts that are associated with saving the plant.  We also created obstacles on that side to show that the right way might not always be the easy way.  On the contrary, the “trash” side is dark and smelly, but it is easier to go through.  It is supposed to make the user feel guilty because they chose to be lazy and do nothing to help save the planet.  The installation is a metaphor to pollution, so we hope it encourages the user to make better decisions about their actions in the future.  

        In real life, the structure would be over fourteen feet long, so we had to make scale model.  We used similar materials in the model in hopes to make it as realistic as possible.  Creating the scale model presented a problem because every measurement had to be precise and exact in order for the pieces to fit together.  Having all of the different sketches and ideas in different measurement scales was challenging because that threw off what the actual size of something was.

        Looking back, the end product was not something we would have made again in the future.  The idea we had of a person having to choose was a good start, but we needed to come up with a better way of conveying the idea.  For the purpose of this project, however, the end product turned out just fine.  Additionally, this project made us realize that collaboration is difficult.  Although there were some problems along the way, in the end we came through together to successfully present an idea that we were all proud of.